National Health Insurance

"National Health Insurance means combining the efficiency of the Postal Service with the compassion of the I.R.S. … and the cost accounting of the Pentagon." 

Louis Sullivan/Connie Horner quoted by Novak in Forbes

Who's in charge?



Mike Calpino

 This week we, the United States, committed ourselves to another war. We began enforcing a ‘no fly’ zone in an effort to help the rebellion, led primarily by terrorists, against a brutal dictator. And why have we decided to become engaged in this conflict? Because the United Nations said so.


Once upon a time we were a sovereign nation who would only commit blood and treasure when it was in our best interest. We adhered to a law, called the constitution, that said that only the representatives of the people, the congress, could make that commitment, and it could only be paid for if that body approved and could convince the people to buy bonds or pay taxes to support it. Not any more. Now we have a president who has no clue what to do until the United Nations, an unelected, anti-American body, tells him that it would be a good idea to put our brave men and women in harm’s way and expend billions of dollars of the Fed’s freshly printed dollars. Really? When did "we the people" choose to give up our national sovereignty and allow the United Nations determine where and how our military and tax dollars are used? I don’t remember that vote, do you?
There are two things wrong with our latest "intervention" that concern me. One is the above mentioned subservience to the United Nations. That is an organization we should have pulled out of a long time ago. In fact, it was set up in a way to put us at a disadvantage in any attempt gain support for any action we may believe is in our best interest. It is a waste of our money and everyone else’s. It is corrupt from top to bottom, it is comprised primarily of dictators and thugs and even our supposed ‘friends’ only vote with us half the time. It puts countries like Libya and Iran on the Human Rights Council and its blue helmeted soldiers often engage in the same atrocious activities they are supposed to prevent. We may complain about the stupidity and corruption in our government but the UN takes it to a whole new level. Knowing that most nations see the UN simply as a tool to bleed us of billions of dollars, humiliate us and keep us from acting in our best interests through supposed ‘international' condemnation, the last governmental body we should be taking direction from is the United Nations. I’d withdrawal from that worthless organization, pull the plug on all funding, give them six months to move out of New York and use that building for something useful, rent it out to some greedy capitalists, perhaps.

Fed and Inflation

by Congressman Ron Paul



Congressman Ron Paul

 Last week, the subcommittee which I chair held a hearing on monetary policy and rising prices. Whether we consider food, gasoline, or clothing, the cost of living is increasing significantly. True inflation is defined as an increase in the money supply. All other things being equal, an increase in the money supply leads to a rise in prices. Inflation’s destructive effects have ruined societies from the Roman Empire to Weimar Germany to modern-day Zimbabwe.


Blame for the most recent round of price increases has been laid at the feet of the Federal Reserve's program of credit expansion for the past three years. The current program, known as QE2, sought to purchase a total of $900 billion in US Treasury debt over a period of 8 months. Roughly $110 billion of newly created money is flooding into commodity markets each month.

The price of cotton is up more than 170% over the past year, oil is up over 40%, and many categories of food staples are seeing double-digit price growth. This means that food, clothing, and gasoline will become increasingly expensive over the coming year. American families, many of whom already live paycheck to paycheck, increasingly will be forced by these rising prices into unwilling tradeoffs: purchasing ground beef rather than steak, drinking water rather than milk, and choosing canned vegetables over fresh in order to keep food on the table and pay the heating bill. Frugality can be a good thing, but only when it is by choice and not forced upon the citizenry by the Fed's ruinous monetary policy.
While the Fed takes credit for the increase in the stock markets, it claims no responsibility for the increases in food and commodity prices. Most economists fail to understand that inflation is at its root a monetary phenomenon. There may be other factors that contribute to price increases, such as famine, flooding, or global unrest, but those effects are transient. Consistently citing only these factors, while never acknowledging the effects of monetary policy, is a cop-out.

The unelected policymakers at the Fed are also the last to feel the effects of inflation. In fact, they benefit from it, as does the government as a whole. Those who receive this new money first, such as government employees, contractors, and bankers are able to use it before price increases occur, while those further down the totem pole suffer price increases before they see any wage increases. By continually reducing the purchasing power of the dollar, the Fed's monetary policy also punishes savings and thrift. After all, why save rapidly depreciating dollars?


Unfortunately, those policymakers who exercise the most power over the economy are also the least likely to understand the effects of their policies. Chairman Bernanke and other members of the Federal Open Market Committee were convinced in mid-2008 that the economy would rebound and continue to grow through 2009, even though it was clear to many observers that we were in the midst of a severe economic crisis. Even Greenspan was known for downplaying the importance of the growing housing bubble just as it was reaching its zenith. It remains impossible for even the brilliant minds at the Fed to achieve both the depth and breadth of knowledge necessary to enact central economic planning without eventually bringing the country to economic ruin. Our witnesses delved deeply into these issues and explained this phenomenon in very logical, simple terms. The American people increasingly understand what is going on with our money. I only hope the Fed is listening.

A Step In Right Direction for Ballot Access

Good news for ballot access: Maryland Court of Appeals okays "imperfect signatures", meaning a doctor's signature would qualify on a petition.

Here is a link that gives a little detail.

And the Baltimore Sun covered it on their blog.

A small, respectful correction to the Baltimmore Sun is that the Maryland Libertarian Party turned in nearly 15,000 signatures.

Thoughts from Jefferson

"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills."  

Thomas Jefferson